RebekahsZ Posted February 7, 2013 Author Share Posted February 7, 2013 No-I'm realistic: the cutouts are just noise makers! I couldn't see adequate space on the crossmember or enough room for a strap to have any length or adjustability. I'm gonna try to dangle a strap between the upper spring perch and the swaybar. Anothe problem with the crossmember is the angle-I'm thinking of the force multiplication (leverage) for every inch moved inboard with the LCA attachment point. We need to get as far outboard as possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dans toy Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 I agree , the angle does create a lot of stress. I'd like to add as little weight as possible. My car is already on the heavy side. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
01vincer6 Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 I had a QTP cutout on my single turbo LS1 and it made it worse. It was nice to have an electric cutout though.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RebekahsZ Posted February 8, 2013 Author Share Posted February 8, 2013 (edited) Muffler brackets on-pictures show hose clamp, but the brackets are tig welded onto the muffler now; thinking about adding a third bracket that connects to the spare tire well to "triangulate" it and make it a fairly fixed point to plan pipes from muffler to crossmember. Rethinking the v-band going into the muffler, the clearance is pretty tight between that inlet and the tire-wish I had chosen an offset-type muffler. Driveshaft just hit my porch; some tubing from Columbia River mandrel bending on porch too. Hope to get some work done this weekend between a gun show, cleaning up a friend's property, on-call for the hospital, killing weeds in my yard (not the California or Colorado weeds), church and keeping my wife happy. Maybe I'll sleep a little, but I gotta see some car progress. Edited February 9, 2013 by RebekahsZ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RebekahsZ Posted February 11, 2013 Author Share Posted February 11, 2013 Driveshaft is back from JCI and it looks good. Refer to threads in the drivetrain section and the fabrication section for the exhaust build-up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RebekahsZ Posted February 16, 2013 Author Share Posted February 16, 2013 Muffler mounting system done. Stainless tubing has arrived. Hoping to hit it hard this weekend-I've got 3 days off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RebekahsZ Posted February 17, 2013 Author Share Posted February 17, 2013 Got a bunch of mock up done today, but I think I'm done until Monday - need to get some things spot welded and sections expanded before I continue. Headers are done except for O2 sensors and ceramic coating. Muffler is hung and it looks like I have enough clearance for the tire. Photo shows largest tire mounted with suspension compressed as per 1/8-mile launch. Will test fit street tires and autocross tires too, since they may have a different offset. Have several sections built, but need to be spot welded. More as I make progress. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RebekahsZ Posted March 2, 2013 Author Share Posted March 2, 2013 Still slogging away with the exhaust welding-this is NOT as easy as it looks. Re-doing passenger side forward of the y-pipe due to poor fitment. This system is 50% stainless tubing and 50% welding rod! Waiting for more tubing to arrive to get cutouts done. Tore down one Doug's Headers cutout to remove electric motor so I don't burn it up welding-cool, simple setup! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RebekahsZ Posted March 11, 2013 Author Share Posted March 11, 2013 Had car back to driving condition for 3 whole days-back in the air today. Exhaust to rear bumper-done. Electric cutouts will have to wait until mid-April to finish. Headers in box to get coated-in the mail tomorrow-2-week lag time. Front suspension disassembled and reassembled: front end play was in TC rods, not in struts; just took the tightenening of one bolt to solve the problem (took tearing whole suspension down to find it). 2" longer front springs installed-1.5" above lower perch now instead of totally maxed out in the up position. Lowered front end back down the 1" I had raised it-I just couldn't stand the high nose, plus will enjoy the 3" of ground clearance I gained with the new exhaust system. Front droop limiter modifications made-gotta take to the welder Monday or Tuesday to have that finalized. Starting this week on installing 2" taller springs in rear, replacing end-links on adjustable rear LCAs and trimming adjustment holes in rear LCAs to make it easier to make adjustments (too tight to get a wrench in there now). A friend is giving me his slightly used trailer radials to replace my jacked-up bias plies-I pick those up 2 hours away tomorrow night. Ordering some grade 8 bolts from boltdepot.com; I should replace my driveshaft bolts at least every season, don't you think? Bucking to have this thing aligned and running by April 5 for a solo driving school. Got Spring mowing of my huge corner lot done today and went to Sunday school and church too. I should sleep well tonight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RebekahsZ Posted March 17, 2013 Author Share Posted March 17, 2013 Whooped it yesterday and finished getting trailer ready. Got rear suspension mods done (longer springs and longer adjustable links) and three tires on the car. Finished front droop limiters. Today after church I hope to re-do some of my differential vent routing and get my fuel gauge working-gonna start with the ohms test on both my old and new senders. Then I'm just waiting on the headers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RebekahsZ Posted March 18, 2013 Author Share Posted March 18, 2013 Diff vent revised due to crimping of the vent hose. Tweeked wiring connectors on fuel level sender and that (seems) to have have fixed it. I removed the fuel sender and it looked like about 1/4-tank, and now the gauge says 1/4 full. I guess I won't know for sure until I fill 'er up. I did hook an ohm meter up to both my old sender and the new one: the old one was rather eratic, the new one was much more smooth in operation and ohm readings. Ordered 28mm wrenches for aligning the old Modern Motorsport adjustable rear LCAs. Ordered shaft collars from McMaster Carr to limit steering angle due to TC rod rubbing of wide tires. Ordered a bunch of new driveshaft bolts from boltdepot.com in anticipation of an exciting summer. For the first time I can remember, I am truly awating parts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RebekahsZ Posted March 21, 2013 Author Share Posted March 21, 2013 Front droop limiters done. Steering angle limiter shaft collars arrived from mcmaster carr; may get those on Saturday. Picture of longer springs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RebekahsZ Posted April 3, 2013 Author Share Posted April 3, 2013 (edited) Modified JTR headers arrived today from Nitroplate. They look great! And I only scuffed them up a bit fighting with the Lokar dipstick. Getting the dipstick in wound up being the fight of the night-the original o-ring had gone chalkie and evidently I replaced it with the wrong size. Used a nitrile O-ring hoping for better longevity. Had to remove the downpipe, starter and knock sensor to get a good angle to push dipstick tube in with enough strength to squish the o-ring enough to fit, but I got it done. Oil change-done. Would like to flush the brake system (reservoirs look pretty dark), but it is time to quit until after this weekend's racing. Going to alignment shop day-after-tomorrow for johnc's autocross alignment settings. Edited April 3, 2013 by RebekahsZ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RebekahsZ Posted April 16, 2013 Author Share Posted April 16, 2013 Took car to dragstrip last weekend and had a great time (headers came in and car ran just as fast as before I had a full exhaust system. Got car home and found I had a left rear brake caliper bleeding. Replaced all the bleeding screws with speed bleeders. Replaced bad caliper this weekend and did the bleeding tonight with help from my begrudging but faithful wife (on the pedal). Went ahead and swapped fluid for Motul 600 high temp fluid (the old stuff was looking dark like iced tea. I freakin' hate bleeding brakes. Failed to tighten speed bleeder on same caliper adequately and made a huge mess, but finally got it done. Gonna bleed again tomorrow. I'm never confident of getting all the air out since the brake booster gives the brakes a rather vague feeling. Went ahead and replaced the brake fluid in the clutch master/slave since it was full of clutch carbon. Put extended studs on front wheels and repacked front wheel bearings. Had drag slicks rotated on the rim due to camber wear and had metal valve stems put on front tires (to get closer to NHRA legal). Installer broke a piece of the old valve stem off inside the tire and I didn't hear it bouncing around in there until I got home and tire shop was closed-tried to get it out myself-no-go. Taking wheel back tomorrow. Met a kid at the tire store who thought a 9-second 1/8-mile is fast. Billet stub axles are scheduled to arrive tomorrow via Fedex. After that is done, I gotta work on lengthening my master cylinder to booster pushrod to regain some pedal travel. Been talking to Matt Isbell about joining him in Atlanta later this summer for a road race instruction day at AMP. Matt says my race tires are probably not "bad" but instead they couldn't stick in autocross due to the lack of prolonged heat. Hoping I don't get Tech'd at Memphis in two weeks. Hoping to weigh car in drag racing trim before that trip too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dans toy Posted April 24, 2013 Share Posted April 24, 2013 Vegas odds favor 2475lb, less driver Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dans toy Posted April 26, 2013 Share Posted April 26, 2013 car only! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RebekahsZ Posted April 27, 2013 Author Share Posted April 27, 2013 Scale at the dump-only displays accurately to 20 pounds. Car was somewhere between 2400 and 2420 ( the scale displayed 2400 some of the time and 2420 some of the time). I put the front wheels on the scales and it read 1200, with the rear wheels on the scale it read 1240. The math doesn't quite add up, I think the scale does some rounding. Heavier than I expected. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RebekahsZ Posted May 3, 2013 Author Share Posted May 3, 2013 Inspecting the car after an autocross test and tune day in a heavy rain followed by the autocross the following day (Sat/Sun), the only issue I have found is a loose strut rod in the left rear. I will have to move over the camber plates to fix that, so it isn't as simple as just tightening it up. The previous autocross cost me a gushing leak at the left rear caliper and a slow leak at the brake master cylinder (did I say that I hate brake work?). Add that to last year's warped clutch and you have the total of the equipment failures I've had since doing the swap and beating on the car pretty hard. Was very traction limited at the autocross, but I was super lucky and just scored a set of Hoosier A6s in the correct (I hope) size from the Parts for Sale section of hybridz.org. Experienced first "wheel hop" when launching car at autocross on my cheap Khumo street tires-tried to limit that as I understand that is the cause of lots of axle failures-so far I haven't had trouble with that at the dragstrip when using slicks. Planning to fix the loose strut Sunday and perhaps get to the strip one day next week for some 1/8th mile-wanna try out Lawrenceburg, TN's dragstrip-I hear it is nice. Next autocross is on May 18th. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RebekahsZ Posted June 14, 2013 Author Share Posted June 14, 2013 Autocross 6/1/13. New pads and turned rotors with insufficient bedding-in: a challenging combination-tough to stop! First time on Hoosier A6s. Camera stopped when I hit a big bump! http://youtu.be/r01FRZe4ekw Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RebekahsZ Posted July 6, 2013 Author Share Posted July 6, 2013 Had rotors re-turned thinking maybe the shop used too fast of a cutting speed=same, rough rotors. Ordered new rotors, all four rotors that came on were wrong. Found a set of old front rotors in a box at home. Took them and the rears to a friend who has a brake lathe. Replaced a front hub, replaced two wheel studs ( rough threads even when new). Gotta replace dust seals on calipers (stiff and cracking-smell like burned rubber). Gotta have car ready for drags on 7/13 for more grudge racing and test and tune. Sent a wheel to AZC to test fit on Dave's mock-up to ensure good firmest before ordering the AZC kit for my first winter project. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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